5,741
edits
Dunhill: Difference between revisions
Jump to navigation
Jump to search
→Chestnut
| (32 intermediate revisions by 2 users not shown) | |||
| Line 324: | Line 324: | ||
==About the Family Business== | ==About the Family Business== | ||
<!--T:30--> | <!--T:30--> | ||
| Line 333: | Line 332: | ||
In 1896 the automobile revolution began to occupy its space in the streets of London. Henry soon realized that this movement posed a future threat to his business. At 55 years old, he was no longer well in health and considered his retirement. | In 1896 the automobile revolution began to occupy its space in the streets of London. Henry soon realized that this movement posed a future threat to his business. At 55 years old, he was no longer well in health and considered his retirement. | ||
When a fire destroyed a section of his store in 1897, Henry decided it was time for his son to take over the business. Mary reported, on a certain occasion, that her grandfather told that in one night, he came home and said: "So you want to take it over, Alfred?". Astute and already glimpsing the market, Alfred said yes and they shook hands. A few weeks later, Henry retired. | When a fire destroyed a section of his store in 1897, Henry decided it was time for his son to take over the business. Mary reported, on a certain occasion, that her grandfather told that in one night, he came home and said: "So you want to take it over, Alfred?". Astute and already glimpsing the market, Alfred said yes and they shook hands. A few weeks later, Henry retired. | ||
And here is where Alfred Dunhill begins his historic journey. In 1887, Alfred, Henry's third son, became an apprentice in his father's harness business. In mid-1893, then at the age of 21, Alfred emerged as an entrepreneur after taking over the saddlery business of his father, which ends up dying a few years later. | And here is where Alfred Dunhill begins his historic journey. In 1887, Alfred, Henry's third son, became an apprentice in his father's harness business. In mid-1893, then at the age of 21, Alfred emerged as an entrepreneur after taking over the saddlery business of his father, which ends up dying a few years later. | ||
<blockquote> | <blockquote> | ||
| Line 340: | Line 338: | ||
</blockquote> | </blockquote> | ||
In 1897, the harness business is expanding and now has accessories for motor vehicles on Euston Road 145-147, London. In 1900 the business is expanding and extended with the founding of the Discount Motor Car Company, directed to the sale by correspondence of automotive accessories established on the 108 of Euston Road. In 1901, the Motor Mart Employment Agency, specializing in the maintenance of automotive vehicles, starts operating at the same address. Through the Motor Mart Alfred also sold many cars in those days, but the manufacturers supplied him cars without any of the essential accessories, he soon moved out of car trading and began yet another business called Dunhill's Motorities. That same year, Henry, Alfred's father, dies. | In 1897, the harness business is expanding and now has accessories for motor vehicles on Euston Road 145-147, London. In 1900 the business is expanding and extended with the founding of the Discount Motor Car Company, directed to the sale by correspondence of automotive accessories established on the 108 of Euston Road. In 1901, the Motor Mart Employment Agency, specializing in the maintenance of automotive vehicles, starts operating at the same address. Through the Motor Mart Alfred also sold many cars in those days, but the manufacturers supplied him cars without any of the essential accessories, he soon moved out of car trading and began yet another business called Dunhill's Motorities. That same year, Henry, Alfred's father, dies. | ||
[[File:Eroad.jpg|thumb|right|250px| Euston Road - 1900]] | |||
[[File:Adahdmd.jpg|thumb|right|250px| Alfred, Alfred Henry and Mary Dunhill]] | |||
[[File:WSpatent.jpg|thumb|right|250px| Wind-shield Patent]] | |||
<!--T:31--> | <!--T:31--> | ||
| Line 368: | Line 368: | ||
The following catalog pages are from this period: | The following catalog pages are from this period: | ||
<gallery mode="packed-hover"> | <gallery mode="packed-hover"> | ||
File:Wb1.jpg | |||
File:Mb1.jpg | File:Mb1.jpg | ||
File:Mb2.jpg | File:Mb2.jpg | ||
| Line 375: | Line 376: | ||
File:Mb6.jpg | File:Mb6.jpg | ||
File:Mb7.jpg | File:Mb7.jpg | ||
File:Wb2.jpg | |||
</gallery> | |||
<gallery mode="packed-hover"> | |||
File:Wb3.jpg | |||
File:Mb8.jpg | File:Mb8.jpg | ||
File:Mb9.jpg | File:Mb9.jpg | ||
| Line 382: | Line 387: | ||
File:Mb13.jpg | File:Mb13.jpg | ||
File:Mb14.jpg | File:Mb14.jpg | ||
File:Wb4.jpg | File:Wb4.jpg | ||
</gallery> | </gallery> | ||
| Line 415: | Line 415: | ||
<q>Notwithstanding that lack of initial success, Alfred Dunhill sold his own car to raise the capital to open a tobacco shop at 31a Duke Street.</q> Loring, J. C., The Dunhill Briar Pipe - The Patent Years and After (self-published, Chicago, 1998). | <q>Notwithstanding that lack of initial success, Alfred Dunhill sold his own car to raise the capital to open a tobacco shop at 31a Duke Street.</q> Loring, J. C., The Dunhill Briar Pipe - The Patent Years and After (self-published, Chicago, 1998). | ||
</blockquote> | </blockquote> | ||
<br> | <br> | ||
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div> | <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div> | ||
==New Phase - Duke Street Era== | |||
<!--T:32--> | <!--T:32--> | ||
| Line 508: | Line 506: | ||
====Pipe Workshop==== | ====Pipe Workshop==== | ||
[[File:Alfredmachine.jpg|thumb|right|200px| Alfred and his machine, Adolphus - courtesy Jon Guss.]] | [[File:Alfredmachine.jpg|thumb|right|200px| Alfred and his machine, Adolphus - courtesy Jon Guss.]] | ||
Loring | [[File:Screen_Shot_2562-09-07_at_17.02.30.png|thumb|right|200px| Briar Selection. ©About Smoke]] | ||
[[File:Screen_Shot_2562-09-07_at_17.02.42.png|thumb|right|200px| Briar Selection. ©About Smoke]] | |||
[[File:Screen_Shot_2562-09-07_at_17.02.59.png|thumb|right|200px| Alfred's Workshop ©About Smoke]] | |||
[[File:Screen_Shot_2562-09-07_at_17.21.07.png|thumb|right|200px| Briar Selection. ©About Smoke]] | |||
[[File:Screen_Shot_2562-09-07_at_17.21.19.png|thumb|right|200px| Briar Selection. ©About Smoke]] | |||
Loring stated in his book that between 1907 and March 1910 (before establishing the manufacturing facility) Alfred's pipes were not made by him. He bought fully manufactured pipes, (most probably) made out of varnished Algerian briar, in four shapes. These were thick shanked, thin shanked, military mount billiards, and a bulldog. After this period, the pipes came from France. | |||
<blockquote><q>These third party made pipes initially carried in the Duke Street shop in 1907 were given shape numbers running from 1 through 30, with shapes 1 and 3 being copied by Dunhill in 1985 for its seventy-fifth anniversary of pipe making set. The pipes came with and without silver banding and in three quality grades (high to low: "B", "A" and "popular"). <br>I do not presently know how these 1907 pipes were stamped, but if I were to hazard a guess it would be DUNHILL over DUKE ST. S.W. on one side, with the shape number either on that side or the reverse. <br><br>In 1909 Dunhill began an in-house pipe repair business and a year later, in March 1910 expanded to a two-man pipe making operation, primarily using bowls shaped in France.</q> '''Loring''', J. C., The Dunhill Briar Pipe, The Patent Years and After (self-published, Chicago, 1998).</blockquote> | |||
<blockquote><q> | <blockquote><q>Bob Winter joined Dunhill to handle pipe-repair work in 1909: he came from F. Charatan & Sons Ltd (of which company an account will follow). He was keen on the idea in the back of Dunhill's mind that a factory should be started, and introduced Joe Sasieni (also from Charatan), an amber and meerschaum worker, who joined the team for 50s a week, on 7 March 1910.</q> '''Balfour''', Michael, Alfred Dunhill, One Hundred Years and More (Weidenfield and Nicolson, London, 1992).</blockquote> | ||
<blockquote><q>He had continued to make headway as a tobacco blender, though, until 1910, he was still without a pipe to do justice to the quality of his blends. The calabash and finely carved meerschaum pipes in his show cases were too fragile for everyday use, and customers had long been complaining about the taste of the cheaply varnished Algerian briars which, as I pointed out, were about all any tobacconist had to offer.</q> '''Dunhill''', Mary, Our Family Business (The Bodley Head - Great Britain, 1979).</blockquote> | |||
Alfred doesn't mention to anyone, Mary reports, but he was investigating the pipe maker's craft from end to end. Alfred Dunhill enticed Joel Sasieni away from Charatan (including Joe Sasieni who was to form his own distinguished pipe company in 1918. The first five Dunhill pipemakers all came from Charatan) and opened a small pipe workshop of his own at 28 Duke St on 7 March 1910. - two rooms upstairs providing the humble beginning. The focus was to use the finest quality briar, and expert craftsmanship to make pipes that would provide a superior smoke, and last a lifetime. The cost would reflect these principals, which was against the current trend of inexpensive pipes of lesser quality (the Bruyere finish is first introduced). | |||
<blockquote><q>From St. Claude, a small town in the Jura mountains which is the French home of the briar pipe industry, Father could obtain the wood he wanted. But from the day he began to study the effect of sunlight on immature bowls in his shop window, he had become obsessed with the subject of wood, its nature and the business of seasoning it. This is why it had taken him three years to evolve the heat treatment processes that are peculiar to the Dunhill pipe and which have a fundamental effect on its smoking properties and on the lasting, natural finish that is given to its grain.</q> '''Dunhill''', Mary, Our Family Business (The Bodley Head - Great Britain, 1979).</blockquote> | |||
Loring also defended, at this time, that Dunhill Bruyere pipes were generally finished from French turned bowls until 1917, when the Calabrian briar started to be used, but not completely. Only in 1920 did Dunhill take the final step in its pipe making operation and began sourcing and cutting all of its own bowls, proudly announcing thereafter that "no French briar was employed". | |||
And after March, with the factory ready to produce, | Hener believes that in the beginning the pipes were obtained from English wholesalers. | ||
<blockquote><q>I understand that the pipes sold in the period since the opening of the Duke street store in 1907 until opening of his own manufacture on 7 March 1910 were obtained from English wholesalers, possibly from wholesaler Alfred J. Nathan (for the less expensive varnished qualities made from Algerian Briar) and from Adolph Posner (for more expensive Straight Grains). As to the manufacturing origin of those early pipes and if they were manufactured in the UK, France or otherwise, I have no knowledge.</q> '''Hener''', K. S., Product Line Director - The White Spot Smoker's Accessory Division and Walthamstow site.</blockquote> | |||
And after March, with the factory ready to produce, most Dunhill pipes were completely made in-house. | |||
<blockquote><q>With the opening of its own manufacture, most pipes were completely made in-house. Some of the bowls selected and graded in the first of the manufacturing processes in 1920 possibly came from St. Claude in France. However, as perhaps those were of lessening quality or becoming too expensive, Alfred Dunhill established a bowl-turning unit at 20 St. Pancras Road near King’s Cross station.</q> '''Hener''', K. S., Product Line Director - The White Spot Smoker's Accessory Division and Walthamstow site.</blockquote> | <blockquote><q>With the opening of its own manufacture, most pipes were completely made in-house. Some of the bowls selected and graded in the first of the manufacturing processes in 1920 possibly came from St. Claude in France. However, as perhaps those were of lessening quality or becoming too expensive, Alfred Dunhill established a bowl-turning unit at 20 St. Pancras Road near King’s Cross station.</q> '''Hener''', K. S., Product Line Director - The White Spot Smoker's Accessory Division and Walthamstow site.</blockquote> | ||
At the beginning, Dunhill's pipes | <blockquote><q>The first pipes were made by two men on the upper floor of Nº. 28 Duke Street. By 1912, when the pipe was well and truly on the market, Father had about half a dozen hand-picked craftsmen in a workshop in Mason's Yard, a short distance from the shop. They worked from eight in the morning until seven at night and, when required to finish pipes the shop would sell next day, later than that. No question of a five-day week or of water to wash with. Like every employee, they received a small commission based on sales and they worked hard because, with the ginger-haired man they called the Guv'nor bounding up the iron staircase several times a day, they were in no doubt about the urgency and importance of their work.</q> '''Dunhill''', Mary, Our Family Business (The Bodley Head - Great Britain, 1979).</blockquote> | ||
At the beginning, Dunhill's pipes were limited production straight grains, hand-cut from over century-old briar burls and fitted with hand-cut 'push' vulcanite bits. | |||
<blockquote><q>These pipes were individually priced from ten shillings six pence to over four pounds.· I am not sure how these pipes were stamped but most likely DUNHILL over DUKE ST. S.W. appeared on the shank with either a "B" or a "DR" near the bowl. A "B" stamping is possible since at that point in time "B" denoted Dunhill’s highest quality pipe. On the other hand I believe "DR" more likely as that stamping was being used to denote straight grained pipes by at least as early as 1915. While these pipes in time became a high end subset to the Dunhill 'Bruyere' (and later the Root) line initially they should be distinguished as these straight grain pipes were hand cut in London from burls as opposed to the Bruyere line which was generally finished from French turned bowls until 1920. (The qualifier 'generally' is used here because any pre 1920 OD, HW or letter shape Bruyeres were most probably also carved from burls in London).</q> '''Loring''', J. C., The Dunhill Briar Pipe, The Patent Years and After (self-published, Chicago, 1998)</blockquote> | <blockquote><q>These pipes were individually priced from ten shillings six pence to over four pounds.· I am not sure how these pipes were stamped but most likely DUNHILL over DUKE ST. S.W. appeared on the shank with either a "B" or a "DR" near the bowl. A "B" stamping is possible since at that point in time "B" denoted Dunhill’s highest quality pipe. On the other hand I believe "DR" more likely as that stamping was being used to denote straight grained pipes by at least as early as 1915. While these pipes in time became a high end subset to the Dunhill 'Bruyere' (and later the Root) line initially they should be distinguished as these straight grain pipes were hand cut in London from burls as opposed to the Bruyere line which was generally finished from French turned bowls until 1920. (The qualifier 'generally' is used here because any pre 1920 OD, HW or letter shape Bruyeres were most probably also carved from burls in London).</q> '''Loring''', J. C., The Dunhill Briar Pipe, The Patent Years and After (self-published, Chicago, 1998)</blockquote> | ||
Hener's information corroborates Loring's, and expands with information about the Motorities pipe production: | |||
<blockquote><q>If we talk about the earliest Dunhill pipes during the Motorities period (1904 – 1907), there were 3 qualities: A Quality (“First quality Briar, with finest vulcanite hand-finished mouthpiece”), B Quality (“specially selected Briars, hand-made”) and a Popular quality, which was lower grade and price. <br>Later, once his own production started, the nomenclature was similar: A Quality, the more expensive B Quality and | <blockquote><q>If we talk about the earliest Dunhill pipes during the Motorities period (1904 – 1907), there were 3 qualities: A Quality (“First quality Briar, with finest vulcanite hand-finished mouthpiece”), B Quality (“specially selected Briars, hand-made”) and a Popular quality, which was lower grade and price. <br>Later, once his own production started, the nomenclature was similar: A Quality, the more expensive B Quality and the much more expensive limited production Straight Grain pipes.</q> '''Hener''', K. S., Product Line Director - The White Spot Smoker's Accessory Division and Walthamstow site.</blockquote> | ||
Mary also related that Micrometer measurements have established everything that they needed to know about shapes and design of bowls. Every Dunhill pipe should have its own specially designed mouthpiece, hand-cut from the finest block vulcanite. | |||
In an article, on fumeursdepipe.net called "Genèse et histoire de la société Adolph Frankau & Co Ltd" it is mentioned that Dunhill also used briar from other English wholesalers. | |||
<blockquote><q>Richard Esserman thinks that Dunhill subcontracted to BBB the manufacturing of the bowls for his Bent Magnums until 1923. In fact, when the companies of the CIL stopped fighting each other, all the bowls were turned in. The new factory was located in Stratford, Carpenters Road. CIL also bought Zuckerman machines as they were more efficient. The finishing workshops closed, and the pipes were finished at Aldershot and sometimes at Shoeburyness. | |||
At that time, it was common practice in commerce to offer other companies surplus stummels at agreed prices. Cadogan used to sell Grade A to Dunhill, and buy him Grade II, III, and IV stummels. But they did not finish the pipes for the other companies: to sell stummels of grade A to Dunhill was more profitable than to make them pipes!</q> See the full article [http://www.fumeursdepipe.net/artbbb.htm?fbclid=IwAR3Qau72uD7Qkc4srlfoaOdOBbHTK9-p87zCBqMl_AZzIt3jgJHGSFp7dQM here]</blockquote> | |||
<br> | <br> | ||
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div> | <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div> | ||
| Line 563: | Line 583: | ||
Although Alfred Dunhill was brilliant, he certainly did not imagine that this indicative dot would become his trademark. In 1923, Dunhill had to go to the courts to defend his creation, which was being replicated by Vauen. Dunhill was successful, while Vauen had to restrict its use to the German and Austrian borders. | Although Alfred Dunhill was brilliant, he certainly did not imagine that this indicative dot would become his trademark. In 1923, Dunhill had to go to the courts to defend his creation, which was being replicated by Vauen. Dunhill was successful, while Vauen had to restrict its use to the German and Austrian borders. | ||
At first, this rounded marking was thinner and made in celluloid, a species of an acrylic predecessor, which was used until the mid-40s, when it was replaced by high-quality acrylic. Because of its appearance, it was defended for years and by many, that the point was made in ivory. However, that is a widespread legend that lasted for years, as evidenced by the information and tests executed in the Pipes Magazine Forum, in a post called "Dunhill White Spot Drama". All the stems were made by hand until 1976 | At first, this rounded marking was thinner and made in celluloid, a species of an acrylic predecessor, which was used until the mid-40s, when it was replaced by high-quality acrylic. Because of its appearance, it was defended for years and by many, that the point was made in ivory. However, that is a widespread legend that lasted for years, as evidenced by the information and tests executed in the Pipes Magazine Forum, in a post called "Dunhill White Spot Drama". | ||
<br> | |||
<br> | |||
'''Note''': All the stems were made by hand until 1976. They have since been machine made due to labor costs. | |||
<br> | <br> | ||
<br> | <br> | ||
| Line 831: | Line 854: | ||
== Chestnut == | == Chestnut == | ||
[[File:1Chestnut.jpg|thumb|right]] | [[File:1Chestnut.jpg|thumb|right]] | ||
A rich, deep walnut colour complemented by the Cumberland mouthpiece – it was introduced in 1983 to to commemorate the closing of the Cumberland Road warehouse. The same stain and stem material as used on the Cumberland, but on a smooth bowl. Like the Bruyere, the finish is smooth to the feel and will lighten in time to show off the grain, which is usually cross-grain top and bottom with birds-eye on the sides of the bowl. Irrespective of shape, size or finish, all Dunhill pipes are of one quality only – the finest. | |||
<br> | <br> | ||
<br> | <br> | ||
| Line 838: | Line 861: | ||
<br> | <br> | ||
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div> | <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div> | ||
== County == | == County == | ||
[[File:1County.jpg|thumb|right]] | [[File:1County.jpg|thumb|right]] | ||